Friday, April 18, 2008

Jason Beghe (actor) Anti- Scientology video removed from YouTube

The 48-year-old was the first celebrity to speak out against the religion, telling how his 12 years with the church damaged him and accusing Scientology of being “destructive” and a “rip-off”.

After Beghe’s criticism of the church made headlines yesterday, YouTube suspended the account of the prolific Scientology critic who posted the video, making the clip unavailable to viewers.

But the suspension has angered YouTube users who have thrown their weight behind Mark Bunker, who uses the name XenuTV1 on the site.

By this morning, 45 YouTube members had used their sign-ons to re-post Bunker’s interview with the Cane and CSI actor.

In the clip, Benghe said: “My experience personally, and what I’ve observed for myself, is that Scientology is destructive and a rip-off.”

"It’s very, very dangerous for your spiritual, psychological and mental, emotional health and evolution. I think it stunts your evolution.”

The church insists it brings its members “spiritual enlightenment” and it has helped the world progress towards “the eradication of its ills”, including drugs, crime, violence and intolerance.

One user, Vongoloid, uploaded the video with the message: “Actor Jason Beghe exposes... Scientology to Mark Bunker of Xenu TV. YouTube suspended Mark's account, XenuTV1, so I am putting this up for justice.”

Another, Skeptic12345, simply said: “Rehosting while Mark Bunker's YouTube is down".

Angry viewers posted comments below the re-hosted clips.

“Unsuspend his f***ing account, YouTube,” wrote one.

“Banning free speech is a major no no. Knock it off.”

YouTube’s policy on suspending accounts relates to copyright and inappropriate content.

“We take copyright issues very seriously. We prohibit users from uploading infringing material and we cooperate with copyright holders to identify and promptly remove infringing content,” its policy states.

“YouTube reviews the content and removes it from the system within minutes if it violates our Terms of Use. This combined with our proprietary technology helps us to enforce the rules. We also disable the accounts of repeat offenders.”

It is not the first time YouTube and Scientology critics have clashed. After a video of Hollywood actor Tom Cruise speaking about Scientology was leaked to YouTube last year, the church raised copyright issues and the site removed the clip, angering its users.


AlsoAlso It’s ok to think Doctor Who is gay, says David Tennant

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Drinking coffee? Thank the Bat

They patiently 'perch and wait' in the tree canopy above the coffee bushes, inverted and clutching a branch with their feet, sometimes for hours at a stretch. Their large, pointy ears listen intently for the sounds of insects chewing, crawling across leaves, or chirping. Then they swoop down and snatch the bug off the leaf or stem.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Let's see, in 1973 I was 12 in the 6th grade

I only thought I was too cool for Sesame Street

Monday, April 7, 2008

CIA Mind Control

Excerpt from a National Geographic documentary about CIA mind control experiments. Gets interesting a couple minutes in. Gets disturbing in the last minute or so.

one must become meat always with one another and make meat


Without "reflection over the power of the meat" the art does not have radiant emittance strength.


What am I talking about?

The Last Supper as a gay orgy? Uproar in Vienna

The sketchy black-and-white picture shows the Twelve Apostles drinking, dancing, and well, getting extremely friendly with each other. It certainly isn’t the version of Christ’s Last Supper that most people are familiar with…

Austrian artist Alfred Hrdlicka’s version of the Last Supper as a homosexual orgy was supposed to be one of the highlights of an exhibition at the Dommuseum, the museum of Vienna’s Roman Catholic cathedral. An initial favourable review by the local Catholic news agency didn’t seem to find anything wrong. But blink and it’s gone — thanks to the intervention of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the archbishop of Vienna, after the painting sparked criticism in Austria and as far away as the United States. Here’s a protest article in German (with 61 comments and an explicit video about the exhibition) and a comically bad machine translation into English.wonderfully profound Babelfish Article with Angry Video (but you have to squint, my Lovelies)
.

Sigh...it's what year again?

Edit Oh yeah: The Empire Never Ended

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Priorities

In which we discover we spend twice as much on make up as we do on aid.
Of course, we spend 117 times as much on war than aid...



(via norightturn)

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Bad Biology

Frank Henenlotter (Frankenhooker, Brain Damage) returns with what looks to be his most demented film yet. This is the trailer.

NSFW. Possibly not safe for humans.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Church of Scientology's 'Operating Thetan' documents leaked online

Wikinews has obtained 'Operating Thetan' (OT) documents of the Church of Scientology which were leaked via Wikileaks. Although some portions of the manual have been leaked previously, this is believed to be the first time the full unedited version has been leaked.

The file is a 612-page compilation of material written for Scientologists by L. Ron Hubbard, and contains instructions for the eight different Operating Thetan levels including 'clear' and OT8. Most of the documents have been retyped from their original sources. The file does, however, contain some scanned in Hubbard's own handwriting, which also bear his signature. The collection also contains bulletins by Hubbard written for individuals who have passed the according levels.

"A great many phenomena (strange things) can happen while doing these drills, if they are done honestly," Hubbard writes in regards to 'OT1.' Hubbard then goes on to explain in hand written notes, the 'drills' one must do in order to become 'OT1':

"One: Walk around and counts bodies until you have a cognition. Make a report saying how many you counted and your cognition. Two: Note several large and small female bodies until you have a cognition. Note it down. Three: Note several large and several small male bodies until you have a cognition. Note it down. Four: Final a tight packed crowd of people. Write it as a crowd and then as individuals until you have a cognition. Note it down. Do step over until you do."

Hubbard then goes on to explain OT2, but before he does so, he tells the Churches how to keep Scientology working. One way is to not divulge information on their "technology." Doing so, says Hubbard, would result in "the complete destruction of all our work."


via Disinfo

Read it while it's hot kids! Me? I've got more important stuff to read like learning about UI design and stuff, but hey I'm putting it out there.